JD Sports will reissue nearly €250,000 [1] in unspent gift card credit to consumers in Ireland after incorrectly canceling vouchers.
The move follows an intervention by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC). The correction ensures that thousands of shoppers recover funds that were prematurely voided due to incorrect expiry dates.
According to the CCPC, the retailer breached Irish gift-voucher legislation by issuing vouchers with expiration dates that did not meet legal requirements. Under legislation introduced in December 2019 [4], gift vouchers must remain valid for a minimum of five years [5].
JD Sports will honor 5,604 vouchers [2] as part of this corrective action. The company is reissuing credit to cards that held a minimum outstanding balance of €10 [3]. This total amount of credit to be returned is approximately €250,000 [1].
The dispute centered on the retailer's failure to adhere to the five-year validity mandate, a rule designed to protect consumers from losing the value of their purchases. The CCPC's oversight led to the agreement to return the funds to the affected Irish customers.
Retailers in Ireland are required to follow these strict timelines to prevent the arbitrary cancellation of consumer credit. The reissue of these funds marks a resolution to the compliance failure regarding the 2019 legal standards.
“JD Sports will reissue nearly €250,000 in unspent gift card credit to consumers in Ireland”
This enforcement action by the CCPC underscores the strict application of the 2019 consumer protection laws in Ireland. By forcing a multinational retailer to honor expired credits, the regulator is signaling that corporate expiry policies cannot override national legislation, ensuring that consumer funds are protected for the full statutory five-year period.
